538 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST* [February i, 1890. 
Bleepers are just as safe from white- ants as 
those most thoroughly saturated with the spirit of 
tar. The Committee went to the extreme of cautious 
reserve in sayiDg that the cause of this exemption 
was unknown, unless it was accounted for by the 
vibration produced bypassing trains. Quite sufficient, 
surely, even if gangs of workmen were not constantly 
stirring the ballast and adjusting the sleepers and 
rails. The termites can only pursue their de- 
structive operations amidst perfect quiet, either 
inside the substance operated on, or under coverings 
of earth, many of which covered ways may be 
Been scoring the walls of neglected buildings, 
which rest on earth in which white-ant nests exist. 
Vie have seen bees build beneath a frequented 
staircase, but the vibration would speedily dislodge 
white-ants if they tried the same experiment. 
Our old friend Dr. Elliott was wont to circumvent 
white-ants by placing a plate of zinc under the 
wall plates of buildings. The moment a white-ant 
got on the zino, the formic acid of the insect aoting 
on the metal produced eleetrio aotion, and then of 
the ant it might be said that 
" The subsequent proceedings interested it no more." 
Eailway timber in the line is safe from the attacks 
of these destructive insects, from the causes we have 
mentioned ; and railway buildings, like others, can 
be made secure by placing tar in the foundations 
and by the use of cement, concrete or asphalte for 
floors, over earth freed from the nests of the insects. 
Prom what we saw of the fine solid karri sleepers 
when some of them were being put down on the 
seaside line, we feel perfectly confident, that, if 
used in buildings instead of being placed in the way 
as sleepers, white-ants would gain nothing by 
attacking them except what Burns wished the 
enemies of his countrymen, — 
A twal' months' toothache. 
A few quite external cracks on some of the karri 
sleepers were very properly dismissed as of no 
consequence, any more than some external change 
of colour when submitted to sun and weather 
exposure. As regards seasoning, too, Mr. Davies 
seems, as we have said, to have soaroely had ground 
for his only qualifying remark, for the Committee 
reported that they had one or two of the piles taken 
down and "the sleepers presented no appearance 
of warping or seriously cracking such as would be 
indicated by the exposure of unseasoned wood to the 
sun." There are few woods, however well seasoned, 
whioh will not, we should think, " sweat " if stacked 
without oaro for ventilation, and exposed to such 
a climate of heat and moisture as ours. The cost 
of the sleepers, considering their exceptionally good 
quality and the fair certainty of their longevity, 
was moderate, B5"27 each, in the store-yard, against 
B6-25 to which satinwood sleepers have now risen. 
The cost of creosoted fir sleepers is of course much 
lower, imports of over 150,000 between 1880 and 
1888 having ranged between B2-72 and E3-79 each ; 
but then the average life of such a sleeper is only 
8 years, and much less on the seaside line, where 
wood, equally with iron, suffers specially from the 
saline moisture. Hard wood sleepers, such as 
karri, red and blue gum, satinwood, doon, millila, 
ttc, average at least 12 years. 
1 ' 
SATINWOOD AND MILLILA SLEEPERS DIFFICULT TO OB- 
T IN — TREATMENT OF SOFTWOOD SLEEPERS — RISE 
IN PRICE OF BALTIC TIMBER — COST OF THE SOUTHERN 
RAILWAY — DISTBIBDTION OF WOODS SUITABLE FOR 
SLEEPERS — AUSTRALIAN TIMBERS— THE SLEEPER COM- 
MITTEE'S REPORT — THE FOREST AND RAILWAY DEPART 
MENTS — A STRONG ARGUMENT FOR RAILWAY EXTENSION. 
Oould an abundance of satinwood and millila 
tleeperH be obtained at a moderate price, of 
cou/te nothing better oouM be desired, But both 
woods are in active demand for cabinet and 
house work, while our forests are full of hard 
woods believed to be excellently suited for rail- 
way sleepers and which can be supplied at 
rates equally satisfactory to the Forest and Eailway 
Departments, but which are not in demand for 
ordinary purposes, probably because they are not 
sufficiently known and have not been fully tried 
as they now will be, by the mo.t severe of teBts, 
burial underground, or worse still under ballast 
pervious to all the rain that falls. If good harp 
wood sleepers can be supplied at about h3-50 each, 
the railway will take considerable quantities of 
them, to be used exclusively in some places, or 
alternately with the creosoted fir, on sharp curves. 
In those places the eDds of the soft wood tleepers 
are so apt to get broken up from cons'ant re-spiking 
and to be crushed by the weight of engines and 
carriages, that with such Bleepers alone it is most 
difficult to keep the line "in gauge." Appended 
to the report there is a list of no fewer than 61 
native hard woods, most of whioh it is believed 
will answer for sleepers, while the question of 
creosoting or otherwise treating such soft woods as 
hora, hal, and Alstonia scholar is not been entered 
on. The late Mr. W Ferguson shrewdly suggested 
that suoh soft timbers might be preserved by 
" gambier " gum, obtained from the leaves of native 
plants. That question of using sleepers of local soft 
woods, treated with antiseptic preparations, may 
some day arise ; for we understand that since the 
estimates for the section of southern railway to 
Bentota were framed, Baltic timber has gone up 
very considerably in price, while iron is also dearer; 
and we may add, while on the subject, instead of 
E850 per acre sufficing for cost of land taken, that 
sum has had to be doubled. With all this, it is 
gratifying to be assured that this, which is likely 
to be the most expensive section of the southern 
line, is not likely to cost more than £3,500 sterling 
per mile. This for broad gauge, mind ; and those 
who want to saddle the colony with break of gauge 
to narrow ought to see a letter which Mr. Treve- 
thick, formerly of our Eailway, has written from 
Japan. There the 3 6" gauge limits speed so much 
that the railway trains cannot compete with the 
coasting steamers. If a line to Jaffna cannot carry 
passengers faster than the colonial steamer can, it 
is not likely, we Eubmit, to be a success. But 
narrow gauge, apart from its other disadvantages, 
means slow speed. We can scarcely admit that 
we have, in such remarks, digressed from our subject. 
There is no doubt that the standard gauge of 4' 8 J-'' 
would have met all our wants. But India having adop- 
ted 5' 6", it was natural we should follow suit, This 
gauge secures speed and safety combined, and any 
saving on the construction of a three feet, six inches 
gauge line would sptedily be lost in working, apart 
from the inconveniences of break of gauge and 
the impcsBibiity of exchanging rolling stock. If 
a mile oi broad gauge on the southern line, 
through dense groves of coconuts, costs only 
£3,500 per mile, it seems perfectly certain that a 
northern line ought not to cost a shilling more 
than £3,000 per n.ile. If such a line were once 
extended to the va-it and prolific forests of the 
North-Central Province, the problem of a sufficiency 
of good and cheap sleepers of local origin for 
our whole railway system would be at once and 
favourably solved. Let us hope that Sir Arthur 
Havelock may be able to commence this great 
work, while completing the southern line to 
Matara, within 4 miles of the noble lighthouse 
that now marks the southernmost point of 
Ceylon,— Dondra Head, which looks across the un- 
broken ocean expanse to the ice-fields that surround 
the Antarotio Pole. 
